


fairy mother

by pprfaith



Series: Wishlist 2015 [13]
Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Community: wishlist_fic, Dysfunctional Family, Family Reunion, Fluffy, Found Family, Gen, Immortal Buffy, Immortality, Mommy Buffy, Prompt Fic, Sappy, Sequel, light on the angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-19
Updated: 2015-12-19
Packaged: 2018-05-07 15:39:19
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,649
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5461991
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pprfaith/pseuds/pprfaith
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which the curse is broken and the Summers family collides with the inhabitants of Storybrooke.</p>
            </blockquote>





	fairy mother

**Author's Note:**

> For _songbirdie_101_ who asked for a continuation in this verse, with the curse broken and the families colliding.

+

By the time the entire town has somehow found it’s way to Granny’s and is sitting there, staring at Emma like she’s spun gold and everything good in the world, Buffy is still smacking herself over being stupid. 

They’ve spent months in Storybrooke by now and even though they knew the True Love schtick the whole time, it took them until Buffy’s grandson lay dying to figure out that it doesn’t have to be romantic love to break the curse. Emma and Henry, mother and son, were enough all along. 

And god, the awkwardness they could have saved themselves. Pin has been alternately guilty and heartbroken, slinking around his father like a beaten dog before coming back to Buffy and hiding his face in her neck the way he did as a child. Emma has been clumsily making friends with her birth parents, resentment for their roles in her life and compassion for how lonely and empty they seem warring within her. And Henry. Henry has been trying so hard to remind people of who they are, putting himself smack in the path of the evil Queen, who, for some weird reason, seems to have a weak spot for him. His name, maybe, Buffy figures, after hearing the story of how the evil Queen killed her own father. 

To mix it all up, a few murders, a bit of kidnapping, a few spots of poisoning and a whole lot of emotional baggage that comes with a patchwork family such as theirs. 

If Buffy could, she’s sure she would have gone grey over the past few months. 

And now here they are and it’s finally, finally done. Emma has broken the curse, fulfilled her destiny and gotten her parents back. Pin has his father. Henry has the fairy tale ending he’s been insisting on for all of them since he was old enough to understand the quirks of the Summers clan. 

It’s all good. 

Maybe, she decides, watching everyone hug and hug and kiss and hug and look so very _relieved_ before wandering out of the diner again in twos and threes to celebrate their freedom, she’ll pay Dawn a visit. Give the kids a chance to catch up with their parents. Give them a little space. Or Faith. Faith might be better. She never settled down like the rest of the gang, still roams the States with a bike and a saddle bag full of weapons, a badass, aging biker chick. She rocks the look and she loves freaking people with her stories. Joining her for a while might be good for Buffy. Xander called, too, a few weeks back, said he wouldn’t mind her dropping in. 

Before she can decide, she’s pulled out of her musings by Granny pressing a key into Mary Margaret’s hand, and a kiss to her forehead, telling her to lock up when they’re done. Then she links arms with Ruby and the two women leave the Summers’ to their reunions. 

Pin and Geppetto are having a quiet conversation at one table, clinging to each other’s hands. The old man is crying and Pin meets Buffy’s eyes over his shoulder and smiles at her, his own blue eyes suspiciously damp. Buffy smiles back and tells herself it’s okay. Pin has always remembered his father, has always saved a place for him in his heart. He’s got a mom in her and a papa in Geppetto and it’s okay. Deep breath. Her baby is well over thirty, she can share him. 

Emma, though. Emma. 

Emma is sitting on one side of a table, Henry by her side, David and Mary Margaret on the other, and they’re staring, uncomfortable and overly emotional, while Emma looks like she wants to run in true Summers fashion. 

It’s Henry who breaks the standoff when he gets up and runs over to Buffy, skidding the last few feet and landing with his face in her chest, arms going around her waist automatically. He looks up at her as she hugs him back, his chin digging into her sternum. Bony boy. Puberty is going to make him look like Lurch, Buffy can tell. 

“Does that mean I can call you Grandma again?” he asks, blinking owlishly at her. These last few months, Buffy’s been Emma’s sister and thus, Henry’s aunt.

Henry hated it. Loudly. 

She rubs her knuckles over his hair and smiles at him. “Course you can, squirt. Gotta freak out the natives somehow, right?”

He beams back at her, all mischief and excitement.

“Mom,” Emma whines from her seat and Buffy’s heart does not, does _not_ skip a beat with relief. “Stop encouraging him!”

Grandmother and grandson roll their eyes in sync. “Oh please,” Buffy counters, “I encouraged you your whole life and you turned out pretty well.”

Aside from that stint in jail, but what’s a Summers without an arrest record? That’s right, not a real Summers. 

Emma rolls her eyes right back. “I’m a demon slayer bounty hunter single mom from fairy tale world.”

“I said ‘fine’, not ‘normal’, didn’t I?”

“Normal is boring,” Pin offers obligingly and holds out a fist for Henry, who scampers over and obediently bumps it with his before climbing into his uncle’s lap and asking Geppetto, point blank, “You’re uncle Pin’s dad. Can I call you Grandad?” 

Emma whistles sharply before the old man can answer. “Oy, kiddo, what did we say about annexing people without their permission?”

The boy frowns cutely. “But I asked?”

Buffy snorts at Emma’s frustrated expression because, yeah, this is karma. This is so totally karma. While she’s making at least a token effort at hiding her glee, her gaze lands on the Charmings, who look somewhere between gutted and happy at what they’re witnessing. A brief glance at Geppetto tells Buffy that the old man is simply happy and, if the way he’s staring at Henry is any indication, more than willing to let himself be annexed into the madness. 

So she decides to focus on the couple who gave her Emma, instead. Pushing away from the wall, she makes her way over in a few quick strides and offers Mary Margaret her hand to shake. “How about reintroductions?” she asks the woman who’s become a sort-of friend over the past few months. “Hi, I’m Buffy Summers, Emma’s and Pin’s mom, no this is not a joke, I’m immortal, it makes for great skin.”

She tags a smile onto the end and pretends she doesn’t hear Emma’s muttering about how she enjoys freaking people out far too much. She doesn’t, actually. Not in this case. She just wants to deal with the confusion so they can move on.

Mary Margaret – does she have to call her Snow White now? – hesitates briefly, then takes the offered hand and shakes it. “Call me Snow,” she returns.

Beside her, David offers, “David is fine.” He shakes her hand, too. “Did… did you adopt Emma?”

“Me and Pin, both,” Emma cuts in, a hard glint in her eyes. “We landed in the middle of the woods, in winter. We probably would have died, if mom hadn’t come along. She saved us, took us in, and kept us.”

“You just… kept them?” Snow asks. She’s been a teacher in this world for twenty-eight years and even inside the magical bubble of Storybrooke, adoption does not work like that. 

“After Pin told me about being made of wood, a magical curse and an evil witch? I wasn’t about to let them get lost in the foster system. Supernatural messes are what I do and those two would have…” she trails off, shrugs, tries not to imagine how they might have turned out as orphans. Would Pin have held on to Emma, or would they have been separated? Would they have found good homes? Would they have grown up alone, abandoned, unloved? Would they have been lonely? She tries not to think of it. “They’re mine. We made it work.”

Even if she sucked at it, at first. But babies forgive a lot and Pin has always been too mature for his own good.

Emma, feeling unusually touchy-feely, wraps an arm around Buffy’s waist and pulls her in, leaning her head against her mother’s stomach. Automatically, Buffy starts carding through the long, blonde hair under her hands. “Mom takes care of us,” Emma declares and Buffy can hear the wry smile in her voice. “Even if we don’t want her to, sometimes.”

I.e. when we run away from home, get knocked up and then land in jail. 

Snow looks like she wants to cry and David takes her hand under the table, squeezes. “But what… I mean… what about us?”

Emma straightens back into her seat and on cue, Henry slips into her lap, even though he’s really getting too big to be lugged around by anyone but the chick with superpowers. Buffy risks a glance at her other kid, finds him and Geppetto sitting side by side, watching the unfolding drama quietly. She decides to join them, perches herself on Pin’s knee and smiles at his father, gets a brilliant grin in return.

“What about you?” Emma asks from behind her Henry-shaped human shield. She sounds brittle, and Buffy’s first instinct is to pull out a sword and slay what made her sound like this, but her baby’s strong. She’s so strong now, and so sure. She has Henry, has Pin and Buffy, and she’s finally grown into her skin. Buffy folds her hands in her lap, feels Pin’s knuckles rap along her spine, just once, a small reassurance. Waits.

“We’re your parents,” Snow declares and beside her, David looks like he’s holding in a flinch. He, at least, understands that it’s not that easy. 

“You gave birth to me,” Emma corrects. “That doesn’t make you parents.”

If there’s one thing growing up Scoobie taught that woman, it’s that blood means absolutely nothing. Unless you’re Dawn. Then it means a lot. But not in the way of family. Not ever when it comes to family. 

“We love you!”

Emma sighs. “I know you do. And I care for you, too. You’re my friends. But you gave me up.”

“To protect you!” Snow argues, fiercely, and while part of Buffy wants to smack her, the other part of her understands her rage. It’s a mother’s rage for her child and Buffy knows how that feels. 

“To protect your people,” Emma snaps back, just as fierce and twice as hard. “You needed a savior and I was it, so you sent me away. If it hadn’t been for that, you wouldn’t have done it. You would have kept me with you and I would have grown up in Storybrooke.”

“But not with us,” David cuts in, quietly. “The curse wouldn’t have allowed for a happy ending like that. You would have grown up with someone else.”

After a moment of silence, Emma accepts that with a nod. “But that would have been out of your hands. Giving me away wasn’t. You made that choice.” She takes a deep breath, hugs Henry close. “Don’t get me wrong. I’m grateful. That you did it. I hit the family jackpot in this world. I’ve got a bunch of aunts and uncles who spoiled me rotten, the most wonderful kid in the world, a brother who would do anything for me, and a mother who never once in my life doubted me, or hesitated to support me, even if she hated my decisions.”

Buffy didn’t realize she was holding her breath until her chest starts burning and she has to gasp, eyes stinging. Behind her, Pin shifts and wraps his arms around her. 

“Did you think we’d just dump you and move on?” he asks quietly, straight into her ear and Buffy…

Buffy did. 

She knows Emma is full of resentment for her birth parents and she knows Pin never had a mother for her to compete with, but she still thought… she wasn’t the best of moms. Threw herself into mortal danger weekly, dumped her kids with sitters to go and stop apocalypses. She was horrible at helping them with their math homework, never strict enough, taught them all kinds of unsavory and illegal things and never sheltered them as much as she should have. 

Looking at Snow and David, she has no doubt they could have done better. To hear Emma say what she just said, to know…

“You love us,” Pin whispers, squeezing just this side of too hard. “You love us and we have always known that. You’d come for us,” he tells her, “and you have to know that we’d come for you, too. Remember, you taught us all our tricks.”

That forces a choked laugh from her because, yeah. She did teach them all their tricks and they’re the most stubborn people in the world – they get that from Dawn, thanks a lot – and what on Earth made her think she’d ever be rid of them?

Geppetto manages to catch her gaze then. His eyes, so much like Pin’s, for all that they are a different color, are watery again. He reaches out one gnarled hand and Buffy takes it after a short pause. He squeezes, gives her a nod. Okay. 

Okay. 

Time to be the mom.

“Right. So. Snow, David, I don’t know what you expected, but even if it feels like a few days for you, it’s been twenty-eight years for Emma. She spent her entire life without you and whether you love her or not isn’t in question here. You simply weren’t there. And Em, honey, I adore you and your stubborn Summers streak, but even if you don’t like them very much right now, they’re family. So we’re going to figure this out, alright?”

Snow looks like Buffy just slapped her, David’s jaw is set tight, but he nods, and Emma really wants to cross her arms over her chest but can’t, because of her pre-teen growth. Buffy can tell just from the mutinous glare she’s getting. 

Pin and Geppetto snort in sync. Like father like son, apparently. She’s going to get a kick out of those two, she can tell. 

Henry surreptitiously gives her a thumbs up. Right until she tags on, “So we’re all going to head to our place, where Henry is going to bed, because it’s way too late for him and he gets grumpy when he’s sleep-deprived.”

“Hey!”

“And then we’re going to break into the hard liquor and get to know each other so we can make this work. And objections?”

Snow opens her mouth like she thinks that was a question, but Henry shaking his head frantically stops her. 

“Grandma’s in slayer mode,” he stage whispers across the table. “If you don’t do what she says, she’s gonna get her scythe!”

He makes it sound like she’s liable to chop up anyone who doesn’t dance to her tune.

“You kind of are,” Pin chuckles and damn, she said that out loud.

“Not them!” she defends, “They made Emma!”

The woman in question scrunches up her nose “Eww. Can we not talk about that? It’s bad enough when Uncle Spike comes to town.”

Henry cringes a little in agreement and Pin just laughs. Get caught having sex in the kitchen _one time_.

“Traitors,” Buffy announces. “I hate all of you.” 

Seriously, just because she’s getting on in age, that doesn’t mean she’s going to turn down a romp in the sheets with a lover who’s had over thirty years to learn her. 

Her babies, all three of them, roll their eyes hard enough to strain something. “We know!” they chorus, making the men laugh. Even Snow cracks a little smile.

Yeah. They’ll figure this out. It’s going to take tears, alcohol and, knowing them, there’s going to be bloodshed at some point, but they’ll get there. 

It’s what family does. 

+


End file.
